YAO now cash cow. Doesn’t much matter who is named this season’s NBA MVP. The league’s most valued player, by far, is Yao Ming.

The league’s entertainment division is in the process of releasing a full-length, co-produced movie about Ming, “The Year of the Yao.” It’s supposed to be pretty good, too.

The movie will be converted from English to Chinese (and vice versa) so it can be seen in China, Ming’s native country. There are 1.3 billion Chinese, give or take a hundred million. Need we draw any further pictures? Yao Ming. Rhymes with ka-ching.

*

David Stern, never shy to muscle the NBA’s TV networks, should, this minute, demand that TNT clean up its act. Thursday, Game 3 of Heat-Nets. It’s 90-90, 22 seconds left in regulation, 9:30 p.m. Captive audience. And because networks now meticulously choose the most inappropriate content to present in promos, an ad for a new TNT drama included a tough guy saying, “I’m the guy b – – – – – g your wife.”

In double OT, another TNT promo included a man calling a woman a “b – – – h.”

For crying out loud, if TNT is going to exploit NBA playoff games to show how low it can go, Stern should show how high he can go.

*

True or false? Topps, the baseball card folks, are issuing weekly Pope Benedict XVI cards, $4.75 per. That’s true. The back of one card reads, “Pope Benedict grew up an Angels fan but broke into the majors with the Cardinals. He’d like to finish his career with the Saints.” (That’s false.)

Nice to see Fox Sports Net, through its “Best Damned Sports Show, Period,” firmly behind the continued boxing career of Riddick Bowe who, at 37, is obese, recently survived a beating on FSN from a guy few had heard of and was slurring his words in the pre-fight interview. Perhaps FSN execs will find time to visit Bowe in the nursing home.

*

Two weeks after the new NFL TV alignments were announced, sportswriters continue to stress over where John Madden might wind up. Odd, we’ve yet to hear even a whisper of wonder about that from a football fan.

The thing we like most about Jim Kaat is that he never seems to be over there, talking at you from out of a TV set. He always seems to be next to you, talking as if you’d chosen to go to the game together. Same goes for Ted Robinson.

Mike Francesa always pretends that WFAN listeners can’t see/hear through him, that, for example, they don’t recognize that his amicus toward Jeremy Shockey is based on Shockey’s return shots at Bill Parcells … Wednesday is the 60th wedding anniversary of Bob and Jane Wolff, the latter obviously was a child bride.

Given the IOC’s history of soliciting under-the-table bribes, its claim that London and New York Olympic bid committees may have been in open violation of rules, we took to mean that New York and London should be more discreet.

No surprise that Jim Dolan wasted time at an NBA owners’ meeting griping about the referees. Those born to the Kingdom of Cablevision are unaccustomed to and appalled by those who would ensure fair competition … There’s only one problem with Stephen A. Smith’s new ESPN Radio show: It’s unlistenable.

*

Time Warner cable’s NYC boss Howard Szarfarc’s recent testimony to the City Council concerning the TW-Cablevision dispute included a boast that TW’s 2.4 million subscribers have received a $2 monthly refund for the loss of MSG and FSN (Mets and MetroStars’ telecasts), “the highest refund ever paid by a cable company in this type of situation.”

Big deal.

Not that we’d expect the City Council to know or to ask, but TW paid Cablevision about $3 per subscriber per month, meaning that, after the $2 refund, TW has saved the balance – roughly $2.4 million per month – on what it used to pay Cablevision. In other words, TW has profited from the dispute.

*

We can see the headline now: “Restaurant Chief Forced To Eat Own Words.”

There are words that you know, immediately, will lead to regret. Sports Illustrated recently quoted Hooters’ chairman Bob Brooks after signing John Daly to an endorsement deal. Of Daly, he said, “He mirrors the everyday customer.”

OK, show of hands. How many customers, by the age of 37, have had profound drinking, gambling and weight problems, have blown several fortunes and have been married four times, the last to a woman who, along with her parents (your in-laws) were indicted for drug money laundering?